I’m finally getting back “into the swing of things,” or whatever that means for this endeavor that I often jokingly refer to as a fake job.

That self-derision is sadly more true now than it has been in a long time. I’ll explain.

I started out reviewing stuff not on the internet, but in a thing called a magazine. That was a collection of paper that came out frequently and had words printed on it. During and after college from 2002-2008, I worked for a small computer magazine in Oregon reviewing video games. It was the perfect use of my fast writing skills gained through the onslaught of essays found in English courses. Only it was also frequently fun!

When I started writing content on Medium five years ago, I wanted to flex those muscles again. I wanted to take all the words my brain was generating about my hobbies (headphones, music, audio, games, tech) and put them somewhere in case anyone else was interested. It became my new uber-hobby. I’d buy a new gaming headset I was interested in and rush to the coffee shop to start testing and writing about it. It became my true cliché home away from home.

I never got into this to make it a business. But for a short while, the business found me. Companies started to take notice and send me review units. Medium became one of several creator platforms to start a Partner Program, and I began to experiment with paywalled content. And some of the folks that ran Medium’s OneZero publication (before the possible implosion of the platform began) worked with me on a few pieces that they kindly featured, granting me access to a whole new size of audience.

It was all great! For a little while.

From the last few months of 2019 into the beginning of 2020, suddenly I was treating my hobby like a business. I had made a few bucks through the paywall in the year and a half before that, but 2019 brought a massive explosion in readership and payouts that finally made it a “real” job. Almost. And then the pandemic happened and it all crashed down for reasons I can’t really explain.

Medium doesn’t put out a lot of data about their payment practices. Their justification is that they want creators to make good content, not focus on gaming the system. They base payments in the partner program off of reader engagement, measured through claps, and the amount of time that readers spend on your page. I found myself in an awkward blind spot as a reviews writer. My stories could get huge traffic, but folks often wouldn’t clap for them, and because they might only be interested in my verdict or one of the individual aspects of a game or headphone, they wouldn’t necessarily spend the time to read the whole article.

Also, Medium has a grudge-tastic relationship with Google. They’ll publicly acknowledge that the search juggernaut is responsible for many of the bigger success stories as far as article views…but that success doesn’t always translate to payment for those in the partner program. About seventy percent of my review traffic comes from Google searches, yet I’d get pennies on the dollar for Google readers vs Medium members. I sort of get that, because of the way the paid membership system works.

But it was still so frustrating to consistently generate huge click rates and page view rates and not make any money. At my peak, I was getting about 200,000 visitors a month to my Medium content. My numbers didn’t really dip during the pandemic either, but my partner program payouts cratered. And this year, I’ve seen my viewership numbers drop by about half compared to normal, thanks in part to a tech interest crunch due to supply shortages caused by record demand. Tech YouTubers and other outlets have had a similar struggle, but I’m a much smaller outlet (one guy) without much of a buffer to low traffic.

When Ev Williams threw a weird fit and knocked over his table full of toys, I decided that I could no longer make money on Medium. But the truth is I wasn’t doing that well anyway. I was making about thirty bucks a month, barely enough to cover the costs of running this web site let alone buying the many review units I source myself. Without my other job doing voice work and production for tiny market local radio, I would have shut the doors there and then.

Instead I kept going with a donation page, to see if the interest was still out there to support my completely independent, non-affiliate-linked, non-subsidized content. So far, I’ve had a small handful of gracious donors…but my enterprise is once again losing money hand over fist, just like when I started it five years ago. It’s a great hobby and a terrible fake joke of a business.

Some of this isn’t new information, but I feel the need to put it out there from time to time for those that might only pop in to read a story or two then go about their day. I’ve never worked for Medium. I’ve never worked for any of the tech companies. I’ve only ever made money at this through donations and the Medium paywall, which I left a few months ago. I do work in small market radio, but that’s not a vast money- making endeavor.

I still enjoy doing this and I’m going to keep going, but right now I have to treat it more like a hobby than a business, so I won’t always be able to rush out and cover the latest product. I’m fortunate enough to have really good relationships with the folks at HyperX and Turtle Beach/Roccat, and they’ve been very encouraging and supportive about my content. I also used to receive some PR materials from Razer until they quietly stopped talking to me. These companies don’t owe me anything whatsoever, and in all three cases they sought me out after enjoying my content, which I take as a huge compliment. They’ve all asked me to be honest and professional in my assessments of their products, and I can tell you that the folks behind the scenes at all three companies are just as enthusiastic about tech as their customers.

UPCOMING CONTENT

With that huge preamble out of the way, here’s what I’m working on right now.

• I’ve got a review unit of HyperX’s new pink colorway of the Cloud Stinger on the way. I think it’s great that they’re putting out one of their most popular products in such a vivid new color, and I hope that more companies will embrace bright color options. I’ve enjoyed the Stinger since it first launched, and it’ll be fun to revisit.

• Scarlet Nexus just came out today, and it’s a fantastic action RPG. If you had a sour taste in your mouth after Dark Alliance like I did, it might be the perfect remedy. I hope to have a full review out in the near future.

• I abandoned my 2016 MacBook that might have a USB port in it made by children in favor of a Surface Laptop Go. It’s a great little device with plenty of power for what I do, and it has a decent headphone output! I’ll have more formal thoughts about the device up in the near future.

That’s what I’m working on right now. I’ve also been pondering buying the Pulse 3D Headset from Sony to check out on my PC and PS4. People enjoyed my takes on the Gold and Platinum wireless headsets, and Sony has now gone all-in on the Pulse headset being the replacement for both. It’s weird too, because the original “Pulse” branding was used for a headset that had a haptic feedback system inside that the new one totally lacks.

I had hoped to have a PS5 by now to test that on as well, but we all know how that supply situation is going.

I’m sorry that my schedule has a lot of “soons” and “maybes” in it but I’m afraid that’s how it’s going to be since this is once again more of a personal hobby than a business. As it was for many, 2020 was brutal on my plans. I had a whole set of content lined up that now exists only in the ether. I was going to start evaluating all sorts of true 4K content and headphone amps on a more regular basis among other things, but alas.

All I can do now is keep going and hope that by following my own enthusiasm again I will still have a good time doing this, because it’s not a good business to get into if you want a secure income, haha.